


The Lion of the Stars

by thedeviltohisangel



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Poe Dameron (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Redemption, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Kylo has a sister, Pining Poe Dameron, Protective Poe Dameron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11173209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedeviltohisangel/pseuds/thedeviltohisangel
Summary: Mara watched with agony as her brother slaughtered the children at her uncle training academy, watched hopeless as she could not bring herself to kill him only fighting hard to avoid his pull to the dark side. At base she falls in love with the greatest pilot in the resistance, content to keep her life and avoid the callings of the Force. Until her brother and her love cross paths and she comes to the conclusion that there is no other choice than to enter the battle field.





	1. Prologue

He saw a lake. A girl with golden hair falling down her back in messy waves, the result of the swim she had finished only mere moments before. She looked over her shoulder laughing at the boy who had just tripped over a tree root when he hadn’t been paying attention.   
Gathering her skirts, she walked over to him, still giggling, and sat by his side. “Are you alright?” she asked as her fingers brushed some dark curls off his forehead.   
“The view from down here is better anyways.” She blushed and chuckled at his line before granting him a chaste kiss.   
“The General will be wondering where we are soon...You have your mission tomorrow.” Her words trailed into a whisper as she reached the end of her thought. The image of him going off to Jakku on his own made her chest tighten with worry. The boy sat up abruptly, moulding his hand to her cheek, his thumb stroking her smooth skin. Both of her hands came to wrap around his forearm, her expression subconsciously taking on sense of desperation.   
“I’ll be fine. I always am. You know that.”  
“I have a bad feeling. As if the Force is telling me to keep you here. Where you’re with me and safe.” He smirked before pulling her closer so her forehead knocked against his.  
“I have no choice but to come back to you. How else am I going to ask you to marry me?”

Kylo Ren drew back from his invasion of the pilot’s mind. “In love with the princess?” Poe gasped as he attempted to recover from the intrusion.  
“Don’t you go near her. I’ll kill you.”   
“Do you not trust that she can take care of herself?” Poe wanted to scream. Mara was the most important person in his life, his whole world. He knew she could fight Ren easily. That wasn’t what bothered him. He had accessed the memory he was holding most sacred. One of his last moments alone with her before he had set out for Jakku. His love for her made him vulnerable, as hers for him did, but the thought of this ship being the last thing he ever saw. The thought of never seeing her again. It was driving him mad. “I will make sure to pass along that your life was ended dreaming of her and all that could have been.”

“She has fallen in love, Grandfather. Master Snoke has tasked me with bringing her here, to him and to the Dark Side. I never thought it possible but this pilot...He could be the key.” He thought back to the moment he had captured from the pilot’s mind, briefly. The image of the princess, Mara, his sister. She had looked so happy. “I won’t let you down, Grandfather. I will finish what you started. With my sister by my side.”


	2. I Was Wondering

Fire was burning all around her. The heat was building inside of her as well. Waging a war on all of her senses.  
She was overwhelmed. She felt the pain radiating from her brother, dangerously mixed with anger as he surveyed the carnage before him. The carnage that he had brought about.   
“Stop this madness!” she called as she felt blood trickle down her face from where her cheek had been cut from flying debris. His gaze turned to her mechanically. She was unsure that he was even really seeing her. Perhaps only looking in her direction.  
“Help me, Mara. Or I’ll have no choice but to kill you.” He used the Force to hurl a boulder towards her, her adrenaline giving her just enough to duck and roll out of the way. “Get up and fight, sister. Don’t show weakness.” Another boulder came in her direction. She called her lightsaber to her from where it had been flung a few feet away. The golden crystal came to life, her arm moving fast enough to cut through the rock before it could hit its target.   
Mara stood on shaking legs to stare down her brother and the darkness that had consumed him. It wasn’t her brother before her anymore. It was something else. His saber glowed red, the color of corruption, betrayal, disappointment.   
“Ben.” She was pleading with him. She knew what she had to do. Luke had warned her of what might come the moment her brother had confided his nightmares. Now it was a matter of bringing herself to do it.   
The saber trembled in her hand but it remained glowing; sure and strong. Her eyes slipped closed as she thought to center herself within the Force. Ben’s presence grew stronger as he stalked his way towards her; assessing her as if she was potential prey. He lunged and she whipped her weapon up to meet him. Her muscles held strong as he pushed down on her, her other hand slipping away to Force push him off balance. She spun and met his counterattack perfectly, the new angle giving her a slight upperhand. He was taller and stronger but she was faster.   
“Do you think you’ll be able to do it? Do you think you’ll be able to kill your brother?” He was taunting her. Using his newfound freedom through anger to say what he knew to be her weakness, her breaking point. She should. She knew that was the only way to prevent further suffering.   
She saw the light of a transport coming in the distance. No doubt someone was coming to collect her brother after his awakening. Mara watched as his resolve faltered for a moment, sensing the ship coming closer. His destiny coming closer. Now was her chance to strike, her chance to complete her destiny.

 

“I couldn’t kill him when I had the chance and now...now…” She felt another wave of anger and despair ripple through her. Poe had been without contact for longer than usual prompting Mara to reach out for him in the universe. She had barely been able to latch on to the fraying edges of his mind but she had pushed through the pain he had been emitting in order to speak with him.   
She rushed forward as his bloodied and limp body came into view. He was lying in a heap in what looked like a cell. His name came out of her mouth as she reached him, her fingers shaking as she tried fruitlessly to wipe some of his blood from his face. But, as always, Mara felt nothing but air as she made contact with his skin. Poe startled awake and tried to push at her image.  
“Mara! You can’t be here! He’ll find you!”  
“Who? Tell me who did this to you, Poe. Let me come save you!” She wished she could jolt some sense into him. Somewhere down the hallway there were footsteps, Poe looking towards them with a wide eyed fear.   
“Go! Leave! I love you, Mara. Let me save you.” And then she had felt him. Mara had felt her brother’s presence as he got closer to the cell.   
Her mother shook her out of her glazed over reverie.  
“Mara there might be nothing we can do for, Poe. He is a very capable member of our team. We can only hope he keeps his own wits about him and finds his way back to us. Back to you.” Mara swallowed as she looked into her mother’s kind eyes.   
“We have so many things left to do,” she whispered. Knowing no words could soothe the ache of her daughter, Leia settled for a gentle kiss against her forehead.   
“Do not let the sadness or anger consume you, my dear. Let Poe’s sacrifice propel you into greater and better things.” Mara nodded once with a weak smile, for her mother’s sake, before she watched the General be called off into another direction.   
“You’re going after him, aren’t you?” Mara turned to see her old friend Ari leaning against the side of the building.  
“Of course. Are you coming with me?”  
“Only if you name your baby after me.” Mara smirked and pulled her friend into a tight hug.   
“When he makes it back from this I promise we will be having lots of babies.”

 

“We have a new member of the rebellion starting today.” Mara hummed from her place at the table as her mother placed a kiss on the top of her head.  
“You seem particularly excited about this one.” Leia was always excited when beings felt the call to her side, it made her feel she was doing something right in the galaxy. Mara had noticed a glimmer to her mother’s eyes when she delivered the news of the newest recruit.   
“His parents were old friends of mine.” Her interest was piqued.  
“Were they on Endor?” For as long as she could remember Mara had always had an interest in the old dealings of the Empire. As a little girl she would sit on her father’s lap as he recounted the tales of him and Chewie, her mother and her uncle, fighting against the bad guys. It had always been so cut and clear to Mara which side was right and which side was wrong. It made the defection of her brother that much harder to swallow.  
“They were. His name is Poe. He comes to us as an expert pilot.” Mara nodded along with her mother’s words, excited to meet this new addition.  
“The Force is telling me he will be useful here,” she laughed.   
“I am sure he will shake things up quite a bit.”

 

As soon as Mara lay down that night she searched the universe for Poe. It was easiest for her to try and make a connection from their shared quarters. His lingering scent and discarded clothes helping to strengthen exactly what she was looking for. From her previous visit to him she could his mind was on the verge of shattering. Mara would have to be strong enough to reach one of the shards and anchor to it with all of her might.  
“Come on, Poe. Please meet me halfway.” If she was unable to find him then she wasn’t sure what she would do.  
“I see the pilot was successful in bringing you out of hiding.” Mara stayed within her mind, turning to see a masked man in all black.  
“I won’t speak to you while you wear that mask.” She locked her facial features into place. She wasn’t willing to even give him a glimpse of any effect he might have on her.   
“Are you sure you wish to see what is under it?”  
“I know what I’ll see. My brother.” Her mother still had trouble coming to terms with what her brother had become, Mara had accepted it that day at the temple. An ominous laugh came from behind the metal obscuration.  
“Love makes you weak. I would’ve let your pilot go so long ago had you not been in his memory.” Something flickered behind her eyes at the idea that the monster in front of her had seen the moments so pure she had shared with Poe.   
“Poe doesn’t belong to anyone.”  
“Oh but he is yours, Mara. Those were the last words he said to you before he left, wasn’t it? The last words you’ll ever hear from him.” She swallowed, quelling the red rage building inside of her.   
“You’re lying.”  
“Don’t you wish I was.” Mara felt energy build in the palm of her hand but before she could release it there was an alarm from her brother’s side of the vision.  
“Looks like you’re the one with the breach.” He flickered into smoke without sparing her a second thought. It was then that she heard a new voice in her mind.  
“Mara? Mara! I’m in a tie fighter. I’m going to Jakku to get BB8 then I’m coming back to you.”  
“Poe, listen to me! Come back now. We can go find BB8 together. You need medical attention.” Her heart was beating uncontrollably with the knowledge that Poe was alive and speaking to her.   
“Mara he holds everything we’ve been working for. I can’t abandon my mission.”  
“I would never ask you to,” she whispered.   
“I love you, Mara. I’ll reach out to you when I can.” He disappeared out of her grasp before she could even say it back to him.   
She was thrown back into her room, the area feeling hotter than it had earlier. The vase across from her shook then shattered as her mind loss a brief moment of control to her anger. It was happening to her more and more lately. A sense of red anger clouding her vision for only fleeting moments but still enough that she was concerned.  
“One with the Force,” she murmured in an attempt to center herself. Mara knew the Dark Side was in her blood and she had watched it overcome her brother right in front of her. “Please keep Poe safe until we are reunited once again.” 

 

Poe had been stricken the moment he saw her across the launch pad looking as ethereal as legend had stated. She had barely spared him a glance in his short time on the base. His first chance at talking to her had been a little while after his first mission. Poe was whistling down the hall as he was one his way to eat dinner when he heard a sound that had been long forgotten by his ear. A light saber.  
He followed the sound to the doorway of the training room to see the Princess Mara working steadily through her combat motions. Poe’s eyes light up with astonishment as he watched her gold blade slice through the air with precision and grace he thought only possible in nature.   
“Dameron.” She acknowledged him before she even turned around, startling Poe out of his trance her grace had put him in.   
“Princess. Sorry for my intrusion.” Mara hooked the handle to her belt and finally brought her gaze to his face with a soft smile.  
“You were a calming presence. No burden or intrusion to apologize for.” She had meant it. The Force had felt him come upon her and focus on her movements but she hadn’t been startled but rather streamlined. He had centered her away from the flickering red glow that was at the edge of her mind. “Were you heading to eat?” Poe’s tongue got caught in his mouth as she turned her piercing eyes to look directly into his.  
“I was. Would you...would you like to join me?”  
“Lead the way.”

 

“I wanted to come and say goodbye.” Mara stood in the doorway of her mother’s private room. “I’ve been in contact with Poe. I’m off to try and find him.” Leia gave her daughter a soft smile.  
“I couldn’t keep you from going even if I tried. You are missing your most vital piece without him.” Mara kissed the top of her mother’s head softly, sending a soft Force gently into her. “May the Force be with you, Mara.”


End file.
